In wired and/or wireless local area networks (e.g. LAN and WLAN, respectively) devices may use an access mechanism to access the network. An example of an access mechanism may be a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) and, more specifically, CSMA/CA with a binary exponential backoff method.
In CSMA/CA with a binary exponential backoff method, the devices, also termed stations, may use a predefined time slot of a time interval to access the channel of WLAN. This time interval may be known in the art as a contention window (CW). The CW may include a predetermined number of slots. In order to reduce the probability of collisions, a station may monitor transmissions of other stations over the channel and may decide to access the channel in a desired time slot of the CW. The desired time slot may be selected randomly from the time slots of the CW and the size of CW may be varied based on a probability of collisions and/or a collision rate parameter, if desired.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.